Why `minimum (1, 2)` returns 2 in Haskell? [duplicate]

Question

Why minimum (1, 2) is 2 in Haskell?

My test result in GHCi,

GHCi, version 8.2.1: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/  :? for help
Prelude> minimum (1, 2)
2

Shouldn't it return 1?

Answer 1

The type of minimum is

 (Ord a, Foldable t) => t a -> a

The Foldable instance for pairs refers only to the second element of the pair, which you can see with toList:

toList (1,2)
> [2]

the minimum element in that collection is 2.